Much Is Still Wanting To Complete This Most Interesting
Geographical Comparison; And As A Great Part Of The Country Visited
By
Burckhardt has since his time been explored by a gentleman better
qualified to illustrate its antiquities by his learning;
Who travelled
under more favourable circumstances, and who was particuarly diligent in
collecting those most faithful of all geographical evidences, ancient
inscriptions, it may be left to Mr. W. Bankes, to illustrate more fully
the ancient geography of the Decapolis and adjoining districts, and to
remove some of the difficulties arising from the ambiguity of the
ancient authorities.
It will be found, perhaps, that our traveller is incorrect in supposing,
that the ruins at Omkeis are those of Gamala, for the situalion of
Omkeis, the strength of its position, and the extent of the ruins, all
favour the opinion that it was Gadara, the chief city of Peraea, the
strongest place in this part of the country, and the situation of which,
on a mountain over against Tiberias and Scythopolis, [Polyb.1.5.c.71.
Joseph.de Bel. Jud.l.4.c.8. Euseb. Onomast. in [Greek text]. The
distance of the ruins at Omkeis from the Hieromax and the hot baths
seems to have been Burckhardt's objection to their being the remains of
Gadara; but this distance is justified by St. Jerom, by Eusebius, and by
a writer of the 5th century. According to the two former authors the hot
baths were not at Gadara, but at a place near it called Aitham, or
Aimath, or Emmatha; and the latter correctly states the distance at five
miles. Reland Palaest. p.302, 775. Perhaps Gamala was at El Hosn;
Gaulanitis, of which Gamala was the chief town, will then correspond
very well with Djolan.] corresponds precisely with that of Omkeis. But
it will probably be admitted, that our traveller has rightly placed
several other cities, such as Scythopolis, Hippus, Abila,[There were two
cities of this name. Abil on the Western borders of the Haouran appears
to have been the Abila of Lysanias, which the Emperors Claudius and Nero
gave together with Batanaea and Trachonitis, to Herodes Agrippa. Joseph.
Ant. Jud. l.19.c.5.--sl.20.c.7.] Gerasa, Amathus;
[p.v]and he has greatly improved our knowledge of Sacred Geography, by
ascertaining many of the Hebrew sites in the once populous but now
deserted region, formerly known by the names of Edom, Moab, Ammon, and
the country of the Amorites.
The principal geographical discoveries of our traveller, are the nature
of the country between the Dead Sea and the gulf of Aelana, now Akaba;--
the extent, conformation, and detailed topography of the Haouran;--the
site of Apameia on the Orontes, one of the most important cities of
Syria under the Macedonian Greeks;--the site of Petra, which, under the
Romans, gave the name of Arabia Petraea to the surrounding territory;--
and the general structure of the peninsula of Mount Sinai; together with
many new facts in its geography, one of the most important of which is
the extent and form of the AElanitic gulf, hitherto so imperfectly known
as either to be omitted in the maps, or marked with a bifurcation at the
extremity, which is now found not to exist.
M. Seetzen, in the years 1805 and 1806, had traversed a part of the
Haouran to Mezareib and Draa, had observed the Paneium at the source of
the Jordan at Banias, had visited the ancient sites at Omkeis, Beit-er-
Ras, Abil, Djerash and Amman, and had followed the route afterwards
taken by Burckhardt through Rabbath Moab to Kerek, from whence he passed
round the southern extremity of the Dead Sea to Jerusalem. The public,
however, has never received any more than a very short account of these
journeys, taken from the correspondence of M. Seetzen with M. de Zach,
at Saxe-Gotha.[This correspondence having been communicated to the
Palestine Association, was translated and printed by that Society in the
year 1810, in a quarto of forty-seven pages.] He was quite unsuccessful
in his inquiries for Petra, and having taken the road which leads to
Mount Sinai [p.vi]from Hebron, he had no suspicion of the existence of
the long valley known by the names of El Ghor, and El Araba.
This prolongation of the valley of the Jordan, which completes a
longitudinal separation of Syria, extending for three hundred miles from
the sources of that river to the eastern branch of the Red Sea, is a
most important feature in the geography of the Holy Land,--indicating
that the Jordan once discharged itself into the Red Sea, and confirming
the truth of that great volcanic convulsion, described in the nineteenth
chapter of Genesis, which interrupted the course of the river, which
converted into a lake the fertile plain occupied by the cities of Adma,
Zeboin, Sodom and Gomorra, and which changed all the valley to the
southward of that district into a sandy desert.
The part of the valley of the Orontes, below Hamah, in which stood the
Greek cities of Larissa and Apameia, has now for the first time been
examined by a scientific traveller, and the large lake together with the
modern name of Famia, which have so long occupied a place in the maps of
Syria, may henceforth be erased.
The country of the Nabataei, of which Petra was the chief town, is well
characterized by Diodorus,[Diod. Sic.l.2,c.48.] as containing some
fruitful spots, but as being for the greater part, desert and waterless.
With equal accuracy, the combined information of Eratosthenes,
[Eratosth. ap. Strab. p.767.] Strabo,[Strabo, p.779.] and Pliny, [Plin.
Hist Nat.l.6,c.28.] describes Petra as falling in a line, drawn from the
head of the Arabian gulf (Suez) to Babylon,--as being at the distance of
three or four days from Jericho, and of four or five from Phoenicon,
which was a place now called Moyeleh, on the Nabataean coast, near the
entrance of the AElanitic gulf,--and as situated in a valley of about
two miles in length surrounded with deserts, inclosed within precipices,
and watered by a river.
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